Stay on target

At Samsung’s bombastic (and Apple-style hyperbolic) Unpacked live show here in New York City, the company noted its recent hard times. After the exploding Samsung Galaxy Note 7 debacle, you can’t blame folks for not being as enthusiastic towards Samsung phones as they used to be. Plus, there are plenty of other cool upcoming Android phones worth looking forward to.

But bruises aside, Samsung is still the king of the Android smartphone. Its next flagship phone, the Samsung Galaxy S8, should remind everyone of that. After watching the phone’s full unveiling, and getting some hands-on time with the device, here’s everything you need to know about the Samsung Galaxy S8.

Date and Price

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ go on sale April 21 starting at $750 and $850, respectively.

Features

What you really want to know is what can the Galaxy S8 do besides call people, download apps, and run a customized Android 7.0 Nougat? A bunch of things. Many Galaxy S8 features were leaked months ago, and it turns out they were mostly right.

Let’s start with some specs. The S8 will come in 5.8- and 6.2-inch models and the AMOLED screens will have a narrower aspect ratio. The non-removable (less likely to explode) batteries are 3000mAh and 3500mAh. There are 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and MicroSD card support. The processor is a powerful yet efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon 835.

Numbers are cool but what can a layperson expect from this thing? The front camera will be 8-megapixel with new selfie options, the rear camera will be 12-megapixel, and both will be pretty similar to previous models. There is a fingerprint scanner and an iris scanner for added security. The phone continues the trend of water resistance being a standard feature. There’s no physical Home button (the virtual one works just fine) but there is a USB-C port and a headphone jack. Thank Grodd. The phone even comes bundled with $99 Harman AKG headphones.

Previous flagship Samsung phones came in standard versions and premium “Edge” versions with curved displays. However, the only version of the S8 will be the curved version with a nearly bezel-free, edge-to-edge screen. This “Infinity Display” (get it? the number 8 also looks like the infinity sign) is the device’s major selling point, and while it may not be the revolution Samsung claims it is, it does feel quite comfortable and rounded to use with one hand. Samsung showcased Iron Fist and Ghost in the Shell, but you can use the increased real estate to watch good entertainment, too.

Those are some nice features, but what can the S8 do that’s really exciting? It will be compatible with improved Gear VR and Gear 360 accessories for consuming and creating even more accessible virtual reality content. Samsung showed off a new motion controller and everyone at today’s event walked away with a new 360 camera for broadcasting live VR videos. Taking a cue from some Windows phones, you can also use the S8 as a desktop computer powered by Android thanks to the nifty DeX accessory. Just bring your own monitor, keyboard, and mouse. It’s like a Nintendo Switch for productivity.

Finally, the S8 will have a new Samsung voice assistant currently known as “Bixby.” How long until someone makes an Avengers of phone assistants? Along with being the best actor to play the Incredible Hulk, Bixby may be based on Viv Labs artificial intelligence. The company, a recent Samsung acquisition, employs former Siri creators.

Bixby’s core feature, Bixby Vision augmented reality, allows to it to access apps, process payments alongside the incredibly versatile Samsung Pay, monitor health, work with security features like fingerprint and facial ID recognition, communicate with the Internet of Things, and make visual searches using cameras and sensors and contextual data on your phone. I had Bixby look at my iPhone and it showed me links for buying iPhone cases. However, Bixby won’t be fully functional when the S8 launches in April.

In my opinion, the S8 isn’t a revolutionary piece of technology. It’s still just a phone. But it is a really nice phone. Just a few more weeks until everyone can get their hands on the S8 and can decide for themselves. For more on the Samsung Galaxy S8 check out our sister site PCMag.com.